Windows XP x64 vs Vista x64

[DodgeViper]

I've installed XP x64 on my Intel Quad Core Q6600 2.4GHz with 4GB DDR2 800 RAM and an ATI HD 3870XT. I've used 64bit drivers for all hardware and have had a few problems which has mainly been the graphics card, but nothing too major. I was wondering if Vista 64bit would be any better than XP 64bit.

[Volatile]

I would stick with XP for sure.

[PhatSRT4]

Vista x64 works flawlessly for me.

[RDExpress]

I would stick with XP for sure.

Question: Why? Please elaborate.

(I personally don't have any preference between Vista and XP.. both have their highs and lows)

[Mannlich]

I also have been running Vista64 flawlessly. I know people have their complaints about vista, but it has always worked great for me since day one.

[FATILA]

I've never tried Xp x64, but you might find a few 64bit drivers and software (e.g new itunes) that will only work on Vista x64 and not both in the future. Vista x64 also works flawlessly here (similar setup to yours). Might I suggest you try dualbooting?

[Volatile]

Question: Why? Please elaborate.

(I personally don't have any preference between Vista and XP.. both have their highs and lows)

Personal Opinion of the OS with some comparison truths:

Vista is a facemask of XP. XP SP3 is the bug and security enhancements that Vista is without the Eyecandy. Microsoft is pushing for the SP1 of Vista before the release of XP SP3 to try and drive the consumer base to Vista. Vista was a launch to implicate and produce the effects that Apple and Linux has. Vista in my opinion is a major memory hog, beyond the fact that you have a much capable computer to handle it. If you said XP x86 or Vista x64, I would have said the Vista version... primarily because the 64 bit models take advantage of the 3G+ memory. I think that you sacrifice alot by switching to an OS which I think all you REALLY see is the visual aspects of.

I have used the 32 bit of Vista on my laptop for about a year (at least) and noticed major issues. Network printing to a print server is impossible. If I print from a webpage to a networked printer installed on a server, it errors out, every time. My xp desktop will print to this same system flawlessly. I hardly have a problem with Vista in general, but after using Vista for a year and XP since it was in Beta (as well as troubleshooting), XP is the winner in my book. Working in IT, I get users asking all the time.. I got my computer with Vista pre-installed, my wife loves it.. but I hate it... how can I get XP on there???

There will be users out there who love it and users who will hate it... but my opinion is no, stick with XP.

[L3thal Veteran]

Vista x64 works flawlessly for me.

Same here (Y)

I've used both for over a year and they both get the job done. If you like Vista, then get Vista x64 but if you prefer XP, get XP x64.

[ViperAFK]

Vista x64 works perfectly for me.

[Ambroos]

I use Vista x64, never needed any reinstall, everything (besides my free webcam and prehistoric printer) works perfect! The problem with my printer is just that HP doesn't want to make drivers, and the XP x64 drivers don't work...

[HawkMan]

XP x64 has been abandoned, even MS themself only add Vista support for their 64 bit software.

3rd party software vendors are staying even further away from XP x64. sure XP 64 works, ut if you want more use of that x64, ou'll need Vista. Vista x64 also has drivers being developed for it, unlike XP x64.

[Volatile]

XP x64 has been abandoned, even MS themself only add Vista support for their 64 bit software.

3rd party software vendors are staying even further away from XP x64. sure XP 64 works, ut if you want more use of that x64, ou'll need Vista. Vista x64 also has drivers being developed for it, unlike XP x64.

Very true. Microsoft is trying to migrate everyone to Vista and pull them away from XP. Vista is preinstalled on MANY systems you buy today and you actually have to pay MORE to downgrade to the older version.

I still prefer XP :p

[SuperHumanly]

With a system like that, it would seem to me like you would do some gaming. Doesn't DirectX 10 only work on Vista?

[Taliseian]

As for gaming - yes, only Vista has DX10 (tho I've heard of a group of programmers trying to backwards port it to XP - can't remember name or link off hand). But right now only a a couple of games have native DX10 support.

As for future hardware drivers, Vista is definately a better choice than XP64. Unfortunately, driver support for XP64 never really took off, while alot of hardware has Vista 64 drivers (except for Creative who still pushes their 32 bit drivers for use on a 64 bit OS... :boggle: ).

I've been running Vista 64 as my main OS for the past several months once hardware drivers (nVidia in particular) were in better shape. At launch, Vista had very poor driver support across the board. Today its a different story.

In my opinion, with your system setup, you would be better off running a 64 bit OS and you have more than enough horsepower for Vista. I'd give Vista 64 a run to make sure you like it - either by dual booting or backing up your current setup in case you don't like it. Acronis True Image or Ghost are good choices for backing up your system first.

T

[Volatile]

I will try not to bring this thread off topic :p

Yes, DX10 is only capable on Vista, but you will also need a capable video card. The games haven't quite pulled into the DX10 or HDR lighting (bloom) mode and will be surely pulling up fast. Currently you can't really take advantage of the effect because it's just starting to roll out in todays games.

I many times think that the first new gadget that comes out is basically beta.. regardless of the testing. The "have to have it" freaks will buy it up and whatever problems they are faced with gives route for a new distribution. DX10 cards that came out were very costly. But what about DX10.1....

Even though DX10.1 will support current DX10 graphics hardware, today's DX10 hardware will not be able to support all of the features of DX10.1, which includes incremental improvements to 3D rendering quality.

[CelticWhisper]

As the saying goes, "Better the devil you know than the devil you don't."

Here's my advice to you: XP is the devil you know, Vista the devil you don't.

Get ahold of some imaging software like Ghost, Acronis, or the like and do an image of your XP setup.

Try Vista.

If it works, go full speed ahead. If not, pull the ripcord and parachute back to your imaged XP install. I find it's a LOT less stressful to try something new if you have an easy "Emergency Stop" button. In fact, my desire to try Linux is what prompted me to do so much work on building my unattended XP install. That way I could install whatever distro I wanted and if it went sour, I wouldn't have to spend so much time getting XP back to the way I liked it - the unattended CD would do it all for me.

The crappy part is that now that I have Ubuntu working so beautifully, that XP unattended CD sits unused. Still, it accomplished its greater purpose.

Anyway, point is that you should try to give yourself an easy out and then give Vista a whirl.

[Matt]

Many of the techies wholeheartedly agree that x64 is much better in Vista than XP primarily because of driver compatibility. You will have less driver issues with Vista x64 than XP x64 especially in the coming years.

[That Guy Veteran]

He has a compatible card that will be able to play all the games today in at least high settings. He also has a card that supports DX10.1, so I don't know why your trying to make it sound like a bad thing. XP64 is abandoned, Vista x64 is being worked on as we speak. Makes sense to go with Vista really doesn't it?

While I must admit that when I was beta testing it driver support was almost non-existent, today it's another story. I'm running Vista no problem with x64 drivers for all my hardware. Just look up Vista vs. XP on any modern up to date site and they'll show you where to go.

[ShaneSparky_YYZ]

I had more issues in x64 Vista than x64 XP, and my computer that I built was built in Sept 2007, i'm waiting for SP1 final to roll around and take a chance then, if not i'll wait for Windows 7 in 2 yrs. I'm tired of partitioning for Vista to see how its "better".

[lothodon]

zune 64bit software will not install on xp x64, vista only, and that is a trend that will continue i'm afraid. as stated earlier, ms abandon what could have been a really nice os (imo) by dropping almost all support for xp x64. too bad, but vista 64 is working better for me now than xp x64 ever did.

[pinogoof]

He guys,

me, myself and i am using vista x64 for a week now. and nothing but good experience. but then again. i have a dual xeon cpu (8 cores), 4 gig of ram, nvidia quatro fx 1700 videocard 512MB (directX10 support), etc etc. except for the fact that my raptor keeps rattling sometimes. only when getting updates.

hope you can use any of this info.

pingoof,

[DodgeViper]

Well my xp x64 died a few days ago, explorer started messing up with no themes working. Every thing slowed down and then after a reboot I had NTLDR missing error.

Looks like I'l be going to vista after all.

[Volatile]

Well my xp x64 died a few days ago, explorer started messing up with no themes working. Every thing slowed down and then after a reboot I had NTLDR missing error.

Looks like I'l be going to vista after all.

Do a scan on your hard drive and make sure its not dying (check eventlog for bad block). Sounds like it to me...

[TheJian]

XP x64 has been abandoned, even MS themself only add Vista support for their 64 bit software.

3rd party software vendors are staying even further away from XP x64. sure XP 64 works, ut if you want more use of that x64, ou'll need Vista. Vista x64 also has drivers being developed for it, unlike XP x64.

This is completely untrue. Nvidia/AMD(ATI)/Intel all have updated drivers for both XP64/XP32 on the same date. This includes any video card released in the last few years and all chipsets too. You can even see in the readme for the Nvidia video card drivers that they addressed a good 5-6 games fixing bugs and even stating they improved performance! My Edimax wireless card is also supported. So that's all vid cards (does anyone buy anything but these 3, either discreet or onboard?), all chipsets/motherboards (anything since XP I imagine...some really old cards might not work, but heck those suck in vista anyway). Note in the video cards Nvidia's 32/64bit drivers are the latest from Dec07. In ATI/AMD's case it was just last month. Doesn't get more up to date than that.

Also note Vista Ultimate will be abandoned (as you say it) BEFORE xp64. WHY? Because no home OS (XP or vista) or vista Ultimate is BUSINESS related. Ultimate will die in 2012. XP Pro however will live to 5yrs past the next OS. Which happens to be 2009 (supposedly) with Windows 7. That means 2014, and if some are to be believed 2010 because MS might be late making XP Pro live even longer until 2015. This is a dirty little secret but it's on MS website.

http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=3223

http://www.crn.com/software/197000329

http://www.intelligententerprise.com/chann...cleID=197000371

Take at look at the drivers for your products before you say this stuff. Do your homework. XP Pro is sold to businesses and as such MUST be fully supported. Don't forget 2003 server is also based on its kernal so that forces even more support for a lot of hardware. Microsoft would like you to BELIEVE it's abandoned but thats just BS. Wake up people quit acting like sheep. If you can prove XP is left behind in benchmarks go for it. You're wrong, and XP SP3 is going to widen the margin between it and Vista another 8-10%. SP1 for Vista meanwhile does NOTHING for performance. Bummer dude. Post your benchmarks, better yet, why are all the hardware sites afraid of benchmarking XP64 vs Vista64? Advertising dollars threatened? They've already made benchmarking SP3 illegal in their eula...LOL. What does that tell you? SP3 came out so fast they don't want it published...ROFLMAO. Think about that. Google this "XP sp3 can't publish benchmarks" without quotes of course. Might add eula to that and get better results but they're there.

To check all MS products go here: http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifeselect

Vista: http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=11734

Sorry, toast in 2012 unless you have the business edition...Bring on the benchmarks...LOL

Can you list some stuff NOT supported that IS in vista? No ancient stuff please. I mean if you haven't upgraded your part in the last 4 years tough luck. That's ancient in pc time. MS should just stop forcing FISTA and bring out another XP. Hackers have already proven you can get DX10 to work so it has nothing to do with the OS, and the same can be said for Aero (even apps have been released though I haven' t bothered to do it...I kind of like Topdesk, but the all seem to slow me down...Alt tab is all I need or a taskbar...heh). Yeah, I created my account just to address this...ROFL. Misinformation hurts us all. Oops...XP home and MCE have now been added...LOL. I didn't realize the link I gave shows that.

[TheJian]

zune 64bit software will not install on xp x64, vista only, and that is a trend that will continue i'm afraid. as stated earlier, ms abandon what could have been a really nice os (imo) by dropping almost all support for xp x64. too bad, but vista 64 is working better for me now than xp x64 ever did.

Does this stop you from installing a 32bit version? :)

Does it run any faster...nope. Anything change? nope.

A side note: Perhaps this is why Zune has no marketshare?...LOL. I thought everyone had an ipod anyway... :devil:

No I hate them...But someone likes them since they've sold what, 100 million? I have an iriver. Because, they're better :)

Just like DirectX 10 this is just MS trying to force us like sheep. Making you think there's a difference. DX 10 hasn't taken off either and won't until they give xp support. Performance sucks anyway.

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/lost_p...mance/page2.asp

Hmm...DX9 also has HDR in it's codepath. Guess that's not missing either...They even gave up on DX10 and tested the rest of the way in DX9 because they couldn't figure out how to get DX10 to win...ROFL.

DX10 looks better: BS.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,2174758,00.asp

While you're there check out the performance. Note that's Aug2007.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2174223,00.asp

Note they tell you they've tested a BUNCH of games. DX10 NEVER wins. "While we continue to wait for a game built upon DirectX 10 from the ground up to wow us with its performance, evidence mounts that DirectX 10 just isn't all it's cracked up to be compared with its predecessor." Doesn't that just about say it all.

Want a performance boost? Dump Vista...